Six local teens honored in National Merit program

By Tessa Duvall | tduvall@mrt.com

Published 1:10 pm, Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Six Midland teens have shown they are among the nation’s best and brightest students.

Earlier this month, the students were named National Merit semifinalists in the 60th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The 16,000 semifinalists nationwide represent less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, according to a press release.

Semifinalists were selected after 1.4 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Becoming a finalist requires submitting a detailed scholarship application, which takes into account the student’s academics, school and community involvement, leadership abilities, employment and honors and awards received. Finalists will be named in February, and more than half of all finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship and earn the title of Merit Scholar.

Midland High School and Trinity School of Midland have two semifinalists each, and Greenwood High School has one.

The sixth student attended MHS for two years, then attended the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science at the University of North Texas for one year before transferring to New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He would have graduated with the Class of 2015 had he remained at MHS.

Each student weighed in on being named a semifinalist and shared their advice and study tips for younger students who may hope to one day to compete for a National Merit Scholarship.